There are two conflicting ways to look at both the Wild's 1-0-3 homestand and its 2-1 shootout loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets.
The glass-half-full fan will say the Wild at least collected points in all four games during the season's most critical juncture and picked up a hard-earned point Saturday night against a goaltender who looked virtually unbeatable.
The glass-half-empty fan will say the most important thing this time of year is victories, not inching your way to the playoffs one shootout loss at a time, and Saturday, the Wild didn't bury its chances and coughed up an extra point despite having a two-goal advantage in the skills competition.
Even players inside the Wild dressing room didn't exactly know how they should feel about picking up five of a possible eight points before hitting the road for three games.
"It's weird," said Zach Parise, who set up Jason Pominville's tying goal and scored his league-leading 37th career shootout goal. "I mean, yeah, we did lose three. But those are big points for us at the same time. But unfortunately it's still a loss and you still have that losing feeling. It's too bad because we played pretty decent in a few of the games we lost."
The Wild is 7-0-3 in its past 10 at home and is five points ahead of eighth-place Dallas and ninth-place Phoenix. It had the better of the chances during an exciting hockey game Saturday, but Sergei Bobrovsky reminded Wild fans exactly why he won the Vezina Trophy last season. Red-hot with a 16-5-2 record since Jan. 4, Bobrovsky made 32 saves and committed highway robbery umpteen times.
"Glad we don't have to play against that goalie again this year," coach Mike Yeo said of Bobrovsky, who made 39 saves during a shootout victory at Minnesota last April. "He seems to really enjoy playing against us."
In the first period, the Russian goalie they call "BOB" committed larceny on Matt Moulson and Kyle Brodziak, then Mikael Granlund, Parise and Jonas Brodin in the second. His biggest heist may have been on teammate Nathan Horton's near own-goal late in the third.